This invention relates generally to instrumentation for sensing local areas or zones of patient body heat, and more particularly concerns such instrumentation effective to sense differential heating of local body areas, as for example skin areas proximate the spinal column.
There is a need for an easily usable, accurate, pocket-sized device that will operate to detect differential heating of patient skin zones. In this regad, it is found that the temperaures of such zones proximate sub-surfaces tissue or muscles in spasm, or sites of bruising or injury are slightly higher than the temperatures of uninjuried tissued zones. In particular, there is need for such a device which may be rapidly applied along the spinal column of a patient to isolate zones along the vertebra which may be in spasm, so that such areas may be investigated.
A device satisfying much of the above need is disclosed on my U.S. Pat. No. 3,933,149; however, certain problems remain. That prior device incorporated a sensor constructed to prevent sensed heat from shorting around the heat sensitive thermistor and into the supporting metal tube. For this purpose, semi-heat conductive epoxy was provided to both support and protect the thermistor, and also to attach to the metal tube; however, this undesirably reduced the sensitivity of the probe, especially when the side of the probe tip touched the skin area during scanning, as for example the patient's neck region.